


The Forgotten Prince

by RobynTheDragon



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: AHIT AU, Alternate Universe, F/M, Forgotten Prince AU, Major focus on Snatcher and Subcon, The warnings are for gore and dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-04-11 18:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19115713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobynTheDragon/pseuds/RobynTheDragon
Summary: Setting is post game, as Hat Kid decides to stay instead of leaving.Prince Snatcher: Rules over Subcon forest as his domain. Thinks of himself as the rightful and proper ruler of his forest. Snatcher is Snatcher, his personality and quirks are similar to the canon game, however after Hat Kid ended up spending more time with him and staying on the planet, he has ended up enjoying being around her. Hat Kid knows of Snatcher’s past, and sees him as a best friend/father-ish figure.Prince Moonjumper: The other half of the Prince, and he only appears when the moon is out. Snatcher can see him all the time, and they fight. A lot. They mostly fight over who is the real Prince, and who owns Subcon Forest. His personality is less bracing than Snatcher, and prefers to talk kindly, mostly in order to manipulate others. Even while he can not be seen or interacted with most of the time, he uses his red strings to manipulate the “real” world around him. There are limits to what he can do. Moonjumper likes Hat Kid… but only because he wants her to join him in his realm, trapped by the moonlight. He also believes that with her by his side in the moon, he will have the power to rule Subcon Forest for himself.





	1. Leaving

**Author's Note:**

> This AU was actually created out of my redesign for Snatcher, where I drew him looking more like his past self. I was inspired to make a whole ask blog for him and it turned into its own AU. I can't thank everyone enough on tumblr and discord for encouraging me to keep writing and creating for this story. If you would like to see more regarding this AU, please check out my tumblr blog here: https://prince-snatcher.tumblr.com/or my AU in Time discord server: https://discord.gg/k4QsM7d
> 
> Thank you all so much!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hat Kid has to return home after collecting all the time pieces, but it seems a few of her friends don't want her to leave...

A bright flash of lights and colors blinded his vision, and then he was just, sitting on his chair. 

The Prince of Subcon shook his head, moving his hair out of his face. His book titled “How to Kill Kids” was laying sprawled on the floor next to his footrest. The familiar sounds of Subcon Forest echoed outside of his mushroom house. He sat looking confused, where did that flash of light come from?

Then he remembered.

...

An obnoxious arena full of colors and lights dazzled the scene around him, and a small red hooded girl with a mustache cackled maniacally at the center of it all. Prince Snatcher along with many others had been brought to this place thanks to the powers of the girl who stole all those time pieces. Everyone was circled around the edges, while one brave girl with a top hat stood up to the ringleader of this chaos.

Earlier he had seen her approach the castle surrounded by lava, and encouraged her to go show this girl who’s boss. If anyone could defeat MU, it would be that kid. While still simmering about his loss, he chalked it up to her unusual alien strength. Which of course, she could use to defeat her. However he was still left with some doubts. He didn’t know the time pieces could be used for so much power…

Prince Snatcher continued to watch Hat Kid dodge broken shards of time magic, wincing when she took a blow or nearly escaped a strong wave of energy. That weird looking bird thing and a bunch of mafia men had started helping her out, but were knocked back by MU’s incredible strength. Suddenly, the mustached girl snapped and jumped in the air, a reflective barrier now surrounding her body. HK attempted to hit her multiple times with her umbrella, but wasn’t able to break through. Snatcher grinned as an idea popped into his head. He turned toward one of the large mountain goats standing beside him,

“Let’s sign a contract and make this girl get lost, once and for all!” He held out a contract and pen for the goat to sign, a smug grin plastered on his face. They took the pen and signed at the bottom without saying a word. Snatcher laughed loudly,

“Hahaha! Alright, let’s go. I’ll create, you’ll throw!” the ghost waved his hands and curled his claws, using what was left of his magic to manifest a cherry bomb. He tossed it to the goat, which then hurled the bomb toward Hat Kid, who noticed and glanced up toward him. She smiled at him brightly and gave him a thumbs up, running over to the bomb and slinging it at MU. A loud explosion echoed through the area and the shield shattered. Mustache Girl glared daggers and started attacking more violently, but not before HK could get a few hits in. Her shield popped back up, and Snatcher hissed. With barely enough energy left, he made another cherry bomb for her. Hat Kid got a hold of it and tossed it at MU, who flew backward after the explosion. Obviously furious, she jolted upward and teleported into midair in the center of the ring.

“ENOUGH!” she yelled. MU started attacking everyone, blasting them with a concentrated energy beam. Mafia men, crows, owls, started dying, exploding into heart pons. The wave of energy landed on the prince, and he was knocked back. _That shouldn’t have been able to hit me._ He wheezed and clutched his chest. This girl had destroyed the world, including his home. Everything and everyone was gone. All of his magic was fading away because Subcon was gone, and he felt himself start to slip away, for good this time. Heaving and looking up, he saw Hat Kid, looking terrified as everyone started to die.

_No. This can’t be the end. I might deserve it, but her..._

Then, everyone started throwing pons at her. Heart pons. Everyone was killing themselves to give their heart pons to Hat Kid. The mafia, the movie directors, even the cats. MU’s expression changed, and she started to panic.

“W-what is this!? If everyone disappears but me, then I’d be all alone! Bad guys, stop it!” Her voice quivered. The former mafia boss, now a jar of goo, interjected.

“No, YOU’RE the bad guy! Get lost!” The jar bounced up and down furiously. 

“Get LOST!” Yelled an angry crow.

The prince nearly came to tears, he could feel them in the corners of his eyes. Hissing and using the last of his strength, he brought himself up to his full height, looming over the red hooded girl. She shrunk down, obviously scared out of her mind. He snarled and yelled,

“We don’t NEED a hero! Get Lost!” He took one hand and clawed deep into the center of his chest, pulling out a shiny yellow heart pon. He tossed it at Hat Kid before collapsing and feeling his form fade away. He could faintly see her reaching out for him and yelling his name as everything turned to black…

…

 

Snatcher looked at his hands, trying to figure as to whether this was all some weird dream or not.

The prince huffed and moved over to a storage bin, and quickly started rummaging through papers and various books. A signed contract caught his eye. He pulled it out from under some old papers and held it in front of him. There was messy handwriting scribbled all over it, and a name in alien writing signed at the bottom. _So this wasn’t just a dream. She was real, and she must have won that fight…_

He looked at the contract again.

_“Please, Be My BFF!”_

His chest tightened, remembering why she wanted the time pieces in the first place. She was going to leave. _She can’t just leave… I can’t let that happen._

The ghost hurried outside of his house and looked up at the stars, bracing himself. He shot up into the sky as fast as he could, flying through the clouds and into space. After flying for a few minutes, an odd looking spaceship made of wood and bright lights came into view. Something suddenly latched onto his body and he looked down, irritated and about to singe whatever was trying to stop him. ...It was those two weird bird directors.

“Please darlin, we want to stop her from leaving!”

“We can’t let the lass go!”

He was still a bit irritated but nodded. At least they were trying to do the same thing he was. 

“She’s not going anywhere.”

As they got closer, he noticed her ship start to move and the engines flare to life. Panicking, he rushed forward, and saw a mafia man outside of her ship. Very odd, he figured, but it seems he was trying to get to her as well. The engines were about to flare to life, and he saw the mafia man grab onto the side of the ship. Prince Snatcher reached forward and grabbed the back of the mafia man’s shirt and held on just in time as the ship lurched forward. Snatcher held it back, and it was really mostly him doing all of the work, but he didn’t care. The spaceship came to a halt as the engines stalled, and the prince sighed in relief, still holding on tightly.

Hat Kid stomped to the glass window on the front of her ship, looking outside to see the weird ragtag gang of “bad guys” clinging onto her ship. She flung the window open, looking surprised. 

“Don’t leave us!” Cried the mafia man.

“Don’t you dare leave, lass!” The Conductor held back tears.

“Let’s watch our movie darlin!” Grooves tried to reason.

“Hey, kiddo! Remember this contract? You can’t just back out of a deal from me you know!” The prince chimed, holding up her “bff” contract. Hat Kid looked rather upset and conflicted, not saying a word and backing away from her window. Not missing his chance, Prince Snatcher slithered into the ship through the window, dragging everyone else with him. The kid was knocked back, and she winced as her hat was knocked off. Snatcher shut the window and floated closer to her, the directors and mafia man dazed and trying to steady themselves on the other side of the room. Prince Snatcher carefully picked her hat up and fixed her hair, then set it back down on top of her head.

“Hey kid, you signed this contract, now you have obligations. You can’t just go leaving me like that,” He teased, presenting the contract again. “Besides, I didn’t sacrifice myself for you for nothing ey?” He chuckled and tapped his chest. HK looked at the contract and back at him, she was holding back tears. The directors and mafia man walked up beside the ghost.

“Ye were my biggest star lassie! How could I let ye leave after ye helped me win the Annual Bird Movie Award?”

“Darlin’ we could make even better movies together this time, we’ll have some real fun!” 

“Little hat girl is hero!” 

Snatcher waited for her to respond, trying to read her expression. If she stayed she could do all of his work! _And maybe I can have a friend…_

Hat Kid walked up to the prince, and grabbed his clawed hand. He had to stop himself from wincing. She looked up at him and smiled brightly, tears sparkling in her closed eyes.

“I’ll stay, I’ll stay with you!”


	2. The Man in The Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hat Kid meets Prince Moonjumper for the first time. Do you think they'll get along? First appearance of the head minion, Spark!

Something was up. Something that wasn’t normal, even for Subcon forest.

Hat Kid likes spending her free time in the dark prince’s forest, not only was it cool, but she got to hang around Snatcher and his minions, who had really warmed up to her. The Prince himself used to insist she was only a nuisance and begged her to leave him alone. However, over time he stopped pretending so hard to dislike her.

Subcon was normally full of weird things, like ghosts, eyes looking at you from the darkness, and just supernatural occurrences that Hat Kid chalked up to be more than normal. Lately however, it seems that the brighter the moon shines over Subcon, even stranger things start to happen.

Hat Kid noticed one day as she was walking through the forest, that a few of Snatcher’s minions were stalking her from afar. While this is isn’t anything unusual, something felt off. It was almost like the girl could feel eyes burning through her, an ominous unusual red glow appearing from the darkest parts of the forest. Becoming unsettled to say the least, Hat Kid attempted to talk to a few of the friendlier minions in order to try to decipher what was going on. She walked up to the head minion, Spark, standing inside Subcon Village.

“Has anything strange been going on around here? I mean… stranger than usual?” She asked, trying not to sound nervous.

“What do you mean, kiddo? Is the boss messing with you or something?” The minion responded. She seemed unphased.

“Ah, no I mean it’s not him. I can tell. It’s almost like there’s something else there.” She tried to explain.

Spark paused for a moment, “Well, a few of the others say they don’t remember where they’ve been for chunks of time around the full moon. But I just tell them it’s a side effect of being reanimated from the dead!”

Hat Kid raised a brow, “Right. Uh, thanks!” She smiled awkwardly before teetering off. Not remembering where they’ve been? I mean she could be right and she was just being paranoid. The planet she now inhabited has always been strange, since the moment she got here. Why wouldn’t there be some weird things going on, especially in Subcon? She thought about asking Prince Snatcher, but shook away the thought, convincing herself that he would just make fun of her for being scared.

While lost in thought, Hat Kid almost didn’t notice the Dweller off in the distance wriggling and squirming out of control. The small alien blinked and squinted her eyes to see better in the dark, walking closer slowly. There’s no reason a Dweller should be so upset, there was nothing around it…

She shuffled around the trees to the clearing where the Dweller was struggling. The masked spirit was bathed in moonlight, and the kid noticed light glimmering off thin crimson strings tethering the Dweller to the sky. Hat Kid furrowed her brow and pulled out her umbrella in a defensive stance, slowly maneuvering around the struggling spirit. She tried to look up and see the source of the strings, but she saw nothing. When she looked back down, the spirit had stopped moving, it’s head dropped down. Suddenly, the strings jerked, and the Dweller looked straight at Hat Kid. The face had been replaced with a single red eye, glowing and glitching out on the face of the mask. The girl gulped and stared back, clutching her umbrella tightly in her hands. Whatever is on the other end of those strings is what’s been causing everything weird to happen, she had to find out what it was. Out of nowhere, soft laughter echoed from every direction around her, and she turned around rapidly to try to find the source. When she turned back around to face the Dweller again, it had disappeared. A shadow danced across the moonlit clearing briefly, and the girl looked up.

Upon the face of the full moon, a figure appeared that almost looked familiar. It was a humanoid ghost creature with blue skin and a mask, dark spikey hair coming from behind the mask. It wore bright red royal garments, shackles bound to it’s wrists. Hat Kid looked on in fear and curiosity as the figure descended from the face of the moon into the clearing before her. A long torn up cape and chains rattled in the wind as it came down, red eyes like daggers as it came closer. Bits and pieces of its body seemed to fade in and out of sight, like it was “glitched out”.

“Hello, little one~” It spoke, a voice ethereal yet charming, “I’ve been watching you for some time now, it’s nice to finally meet you.” It bowed politely and smiled. “You can call me Prince Moonjumper, my dear~” Hat Kid was frozen still, one hand still holding onto her umbrella tightly, her eyes widened as she tried to make sense of what was happening. Prince? Wasn’t Snatcher the prince of Subcon? According to the storybook, he had been killed by Vanessa and turned into the ghost of The Prince… so who is…

“My my, young one, you seem confused~!” Prince Moonjumper interrupted her thoughts, floating ominously in the moonlight, “Ah yes, you see, I believe you have been lied to dear. You are thinking about Snatcher yes? Well, that fraud is nothing but a vengeful spirit who has stolen my title and rightful place as ruler of Subcon,” Moonjumper placed a clawed hand on his chest, gesturing to himself. “I am the real Prince, cursed to be a prisoner of the moon after I was killed by my one true love…” Prince Moonjumper gestured to the moon, looking somber and dramatic. Hat Kid raised a brow. This guy sure was dramatic. Maybe a little off his rocker too.

He stopped, and looked back at the young girl, who had still said nothing, “Do not be afraid dear, I’m sure you’re unsettled by all this, but do not worry,” The ghost slowly started to circle around Hat Kid, “…I promise I mean you no harm,” he cooed in a charming tone. “You see, I’m just a lonely old spirit looking for a friend. Would you like to be my friend, my dear?” Moonjumper smiled, his face close to Hat Kid, showing his sharp fangs. She opened her mouth to say something, but he put a clawed finger up against her lips, “Shhh, young one, you needn’t say anything. I’m sure we will become wonderful friends! My time is short, I can only manifest here in this plane during the full moon, any other time I am trapped in The Horizon. Come back and see me when the moon is full, okay? I’ll miss you my dear~” He pulled away and laughed softly, backing into the shape of the moon. The spirit disappeared as dark clouds covered the moon and blocked the light. 

Hat Kid blinked and touched her face. What was that? Was he telling the truth? Had Snatcher been lying to her all along…?


	3. That Moon Corpse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Hat Kid has discovered Prince Moonjumper, how will Prince Snatcher react?

Ice kept freezing over parts of Snatcher’s forest, and it was really starting to get on his nerves. It always crept up when he wasn’t looking, one moment the grass will be green, and the next moment it’s covered in ice! He didn’t know why it was spreading so fast or so far, and he certainly didn’t wish to venture closer to the manor to find out. He considered asking the kid to go and investigate, but a sharp tug of guilt always stopped him. _I sent her in there before, why can’t I do it again?_ Prince Snatcher scoffed and crossed his arms, floating near the line of frozen grass on the edge of Subcon Village.

He thought for a moment before he just decided to summon his head minion. Lifting one of his clawed hands, he snapped his fingers. With a poof of purple magic, Spark appeared in midair next to him, and she yelped as she fell to the ground. He heard her growl,

“Hey! You could at least warned me before summoning me, _your majesty!_ ” She looked up at him while getting up and dusting herself off. The prince raised a brow and smirked.

“In case you forgot, you’re contractually obligated to deal with it,” He took his eyes off her and looked at the frozen ground, “-anyway I need you to take care of the ice again,” Snatcher clasped his hands in front of him. 

The girl looked at the frozen landscape ahead of them, “This is even farther than it got last time.” She sighed, concern in her tone. 

“Yes, it’s getting rather annoying. I thought the fire spirits were bad…” He snarled, “I’m going to go see if there’s anywhere else this has gotten to. Hurry up and take care of this,” Snatcher stated blunty, before disappearing into a shadow and slinking away through his forest. The dragon huffed and summoned brilliant purple flames at her fingertips, and began thawing the ice.

***

Prince Snatcher patrolled Subcon and tried to take note of where ice had and hadn’t gotten to. He checked the arena, the swamp, the outskirts, the shattered hourglass… he groaned as he realized he’d probably have to check the part of his forest that _he_ always appeared in. The part with scarce trees and plenty of moonlight. He slunk around in the shadows and noted the barren trees covered in bits of frost, but other than that he didn’t see anything extraordinary. A shiny red glimmer on the ground caught his attention. Snatcher rolled his eyes as he recognized a piece of the moon corpse’s red string, then another detail just next to it caught his eye.

Tiny little footprints in the pale dirt.

A sudden rush of panic flooded the prince’s mind. _WHAT?!?! She shouldn’t be here??? N-no, they could be anyone’s footprints…_ Snatcher stood frozen, trying to rationalize what he saw, hoping that what he assumed, couldn’t be true. He shook himself before frantically looking around, trying to find more red strings or footprints, only to find nothing.

This shouldn’t have happened. He had specifically told Hat Kid to _never_ go to this part of his forest. He tried to scare her saying she was contractually obligated to stay away, and if she didn’t, she would die instantly! Even though he probably couldn’t get himself to try to kill her again... This place was strictly forbidden, she was never supposed to find out about or god-forbid _interact_ with that damn Moonjumper. If he managed to get control of her, her powers, her time pieces..

Prince Snatcher nervously adjusted his collar at the thought. _With a puppet like her, he might actually stand a chance at taking over Subcon..._

Panic setting in again, he searched around for any traces of the kid. Hell, he actually wanted Moonjumper to show his face so Snatcher could give him a piece of his mind. He’d murder that masked coward if he could, especially if he did _anything_ to the kid…

Sure enough, Snatcher sensed a faded, glitchy soul appear in the overworld. The corpse had the gaul to manifest right in front of his face, a dumb, smug expression on his mask.

“My my, it seems The Snatcher is worried about something~” He chuckled, his astral projection flickering in the moonlight. Snatcher’s hair and fluff started to turn to flames as he heightened himself and raised his claws,

_“Where is she.”_ He demanded, now towering over Prince Moonjumper. Despite this, the masked ghost seemed unbothered, and just smiled and shrugged.

“I have no idea what you’re going on about~ Oh! Unless you mean that darling little girl I’ve been talking to…” Without thinking, Prince Snatcher lunged at Moon, trying to grab him and pick him up by the collar of his shirt, but hissed as he passed right through. Moon just sighed.

“Tsk, tsk, so simple minded you are, false prince. You can’t hurt a projection,” He turned and gestured to himself, making his cape wave wildly behind him for a second. Snatcher just gagged internally, it’s only been a minute and he’s had enough of this guy.

“Coward,” Snatcher jabbed.

“It’s not like I have a say in the matter, you know. Sometimes I wonder if you even have a brain at all,”

“Shut up. Where’s the kid. I won’t ask again,”

“Oh~! Why do you care about her whereabouts? I wonder, is the big and scary Snatcher actually starting to feel something for once hm? That’s too bad, really,” He shook his head as Snatcher just stood there, fuming, “To answer your question, she came to me and left of her own free will. It was so nice talking to someone as charming as she is! Once she sees how much better I am than you, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll ditch you and come play with me instead! She already promised she’d come back to visit~”

“I know your game. Playing stupid just makes you look even dumber than you already are. I know you just want her powers and her time pieces,”

“My, my, how rude! Can’t a lonely ghost just have a friend? It’s so selfish of you to keep all of the residents of Subcon to yourself, especially since this place belongs to me anyway~”

“You’ll never get your filthy hands on Subcon, any of its residents, and especially not that kid. This is **_MY FOREST_**. Stay the hell away from her or there will be consequences, moon corpse.”

“She can and will do as she pleases, and soon she will see the truth; that I belong here as the true king,” Prince Moonjumper hovered closer to Snatcher and jabbed a finger at his chest, “and you don’t~” He chuckled as he disappeared into pixels, fading away as clouds started to cover the moon. Snatcher scowled and stared up at the night sky. He had come out here looking for simple bits of ice, and how he had an even bigger problem to worry about.

***

Now back at his tree in the heart of Subcon, Snatcher had a lot weighing on his mind. He had to confront the kid. Moonjumper had said that she had _willingly_ gone up to him and spoke to him, and even wished to return to see him. While the corpse tends to lie with every other word, a sharp jab of worry, and something else… jealousy? No, couldn’t be… Anyway, he just had to confront her, to ensure that this situation doesn’t get out of hand. 

Prince Snatcher stood still and focused on detecting the souls in his forest, and felt kind of dumb for not thinking of doing this earlier. He could sense dwellers, minions, some haunted objects, Spark still thawing ice, and- ah! There she was, he sensed the kiddo’s soul near the giant shattered hourglass. He immediately made his way over to her location.

He found her sitting on a broken stone wall with some paper and crayons, seemingly drawing something. Not bothering to sneak up or play a prank, he approached rather seriously, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed on her. 

“Kid-”

“Heya Snatcher~!” She didn’t look up from her drawing, playfully doodling with crayons.

“You went somewhere you weren’t supposed to go, didn’t you?” He started tapping a claw on his arm. She froze for a second and stopped drawing, then looked up at him with an innocent smile,

“Nuh-uh!”

Prince Snatcher was quickly running out of patience.

“I’ll give you one last chance to tell me what happened,”

“What, you mean meeting that weird moon ghost guy?” She looked confused, but Snatcher was still upset.

“I _told_ you to never go to that part of Subcon, or trust any weird ghosts! Except for me, of course.”

“Why do you care? You can’t boss me around” She stuck her tongue out at him, and his eye twitched.

“ _YOU_ decided to stay here, if you’re going to be in my forest, you have to follow my rules! Don’t talk to that ghost ever again. He’s a manipulative doppelganger that only wants to use you, kiddo,” An idea suddenly popped into his head, “Here, let’s make this easier for both of us,”

A contract and feather pen poofed out of thin air in front of Hat Kid, on it was a few words that read,

“NEVER TALK TO MOONJUMPER EVER AGAIN

EVER”

Hat kid crinkled up her nose and looked past the contract at Prince Snatcher,

“Really?” She looked back at the paper and closed her eyes, crossing her arms and turning her back to it, “I won’t sign it,”

“What do you mean _you won’t sign it?_ ” His hair started flaring up into tiny flames again. “You’ve had no problems signing my other contracts-”

“You don’t understand Moonjumper, he’s kind and a lot nicer than you! I can have him as my friend if I want to, and you can’t stop me! She turned around and stuck her tongue out. Prince Snatcher flared up and raised his voice,

**_“You either sign this contract, or I’m going to take your soul and eat it this time!”_ **

Hat Kid fell back off of the brick wall and winced, tiny tears dotting the corners of her eyes. She quickly got up and ran away, muffled sobs echoed through the trees as she ran off. No longer blinded by his sudden rage, he calmed down and realized what he’d said and done. The hot, sharp knife of regret stabbed him in his chest, and looking down he realized he had accidentally burned her drawing. He gingerly picked it up and looked at it. It appeared to be a picture of Hat Kid in the middle, holding hands with Moonjumper on the left- and himself on the right, the side with him on it had suffered the most burn damage.

_That moon corpse was right, she’s going to run right into his claws..._

He held the picture tightly.

_Not if I have anything to say about it._


End file.
